NEW DELHI: India's finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday that the government has no plans to tax agricultural income, a day after a senior economic adviser touched a political nerve by proposing farmers pay income tax like people in cities.
Economist Bibek Debroy, a member of the Policy Commission that serves as the government´s own think-tank, told a news conference on Tuesday that farmers should be liable to pay tax on their incomes at the same thresholds, while taking into account seasonal fluctuations over a three-year period.
Any move to tax farm income could provoke a political backlash in rural India after Prime Minister Modi promised to waive off bank loans to help small farmers whose livelihoods are hostage to the monsoon rains. Income tax in India starts at 5 percent when earnings exceed 250,000 rupees ($3,900), climbing to a top rate of about 30 percent on incomes upward of 1 million rupees. "The central government has no jurisdiction to impose tax on agricultural income," Jaitley said in a statement.
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